Bode's "Complete Catalog of hitherto observed Nebulous Stars and Star Clusters"

Johann Elert Bode (1747-1826), astronomer in Berlin and discoverer of M81, M82, M53 and M92, compiled a deepsky catalog of 75 entries published 1777 in the Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1779, entitled "A Complete Catalog of hitherto observed Nebulous Stars and Star Clusters" (Bode 1777). This catalog was extended by 2 objects found by Bode (M92 and M64) and published in 1779 (Bode 1779).

Unfortunately, Bode's catalog contains many non-existent objects and uninteresting asterisms, mostly copied from elsewhere; personally he only claims to have observed and determined the positions of only 21 of the 75 objects before publishing his catalog. Possibly, he has observed at least one more object, Bode 1, which is perhaps the original discovery of IC 1434. It appears that Bode just copied together all the catalogs he had available (a method which was later repeated, on a larger number of objects and with more success, by John Herschel when composing the GC, and by J.L.E. Dreyer with his NGC and IC catalogs). Bode's list includes:

Bode missed M3 and included only a wrong positions for M28 as well as minor bugs for M53, M69 and M8 [Messier's position] because of data transcription errors (Bode 1781).

Because of this compilation method and sources, he has only 10 of the more conspicuous Messier objects beyond 45 included (mostly from Lacaille), and only three or four real deepsky objects which are not listed in Messier's catalog: Besides his possible original discovery of IC 1434, these are all from Lacaille, namely NGC 2477 = Lacaille I.3, NGC 2546 = Lacaille II.4, and perhaps Collinder 140 = Lacaille II.2 (depending on if this new identification is correct). 21 (or 22, if M40 is included) of the 77 entries do not match any deepsky objects and are either asterisms or simply errata, mostly copied without verification from other sources such as Hevelius.

After publishing his list and supplement, Bode continued to catalog deepsky objects. A notable publication of such a list, of 110 entries, occurred in 1782 in his atlas, "Vorstellung der Gestirne." Again, this list contains all the errata and astrisms mostly inherited from earlier lists, but also some more independent rediscoveries by Bode: An independent rediscovery of M48, for which Bode gives his own correct position, labelled "Monoceros 38" (in addition to listing also Messier's erroneous one), and one of IC 4665 which he cataloged as "Ophiuchus 125."

  • Bode's Original Catalog
  • Bode's Original Object Positions
  • Bode's 1782 catalog
  • Short biography of J.E. Bode

    Please email me if you have or can point me to any help for identifying the remaining entries, or point me to any errors.

    Bode  id      Date
    
    1 = IC 1434(?) 2 = M32 3 = M31 4 Dec 5, 1774 Asterism near Zeta & Lambda Cas, Bode's discovery 5 = M33 [!] Aug 18, 1775 6 55 And - Fla 217 7 = M34 [!] Sep 2, 1774 8 = M45 9 = M38 Nov 2, 1774 10 = M42 late 1775 M43 [!] mentioned in description 11 = M1 Nov 8, 1774 12 = M36 Nov 2, 1774 13 = M37 [!] Nov 2, 1774 14 = M35 15 = M41 16 = M50 (!) Dec 2, 1774 17 = M81 ! Dec 31, 1774 18 = M82 ! Dec 31, 1774 19 = Cr 140? Lac II.2 20 = M44 21 = NGC 2477 Lac I.3 22 = NGC 2546 Lac II.4 23 = M40 (-) Messier's position of M40, Winnecke 4 24 - Hevelius' position of M40, 74/75 UMa - Hev 1496 25 = M51 (!) Jan 5 (or 15), 1774 26 = M53 ! Feb 3, 1775 27 = M83 Lac I.6 28 - Asterism of Theta1, Theta2, 17, 18 Lib - Hev 953 29 = M5 30 = M13 Sep 9, 1774 31 = M4 32 = M12 [!] Aug 14, 1774 33 = M10 [!] Aug 14, 1774 34 - Asterism of 60 Her, 32, 33, 34 Oph - Hev 804 35 = M19 36 = M9 37 = M14 38 - Asterism around 88 Her - Hev 794 39 = M6 40 - 90 f Her - Hev 795 41 = M7 = Lac II.14 42 = M23 43 - (4 Sgr, near M8) 44 < M8 (pt of M8 ?) 45 = M8 Le Gentil's position of M8 46 = NGC 6634 Lac I.11; probably not M69 47 = M20 48 = NGC 6530 7 Sgr, near M8 - Fla 2446 49 = M8 Messier's position of M8, near 9 Sgr 50 = M21 51 = M24 52 = M16 53 = M18 54 = M17 55 Hev 1259 (NGC 6639 ?) 56 = M25 57 = M22 58 = M28 ? (pos error; later corrected) 59 = M26 60 - (Nu 1 Sgr) 61 - (Nu 2 Sgr) 62 = M11 Oct 8, 1774 63 = M55 Lac I.14 64 - Sigma Cap - Hev 380 65 - Rho Cap - Hev 383 66 - Omicron Cap - Hev 382 67 = M27 68 = M30 69 = M29 [!] Dec 5, 1774 70 = M2 [!] Sep (or Oct) 22, 1775 71 = M15 [!] Sep 23, 1774 72 - Nu2 Cyg; Hev 618 ? 73 - 34, 35, 36 Peg - Hev 1113 74 - North of Cyg; Hev 619 ? 75 = M39 [!] Oct 27, 1774 [76]= M92 ! Dec 27, 1777 [77]= M64 (!) Apr 4, 1779 M48 (!) < 1782 IC 4665 (!) < 1782
    Exclamation marks mark Bode's original discoveries, in parentheses an independent rediscovery (M50, M51, and M64, and later M48 and IC 4665), in square brackets presumably independent findings of published (in Messier's first catalog) known objects (M2, M10, M12, M15, M29, M33, M34, M37, M39, and M43); question marks indicate doubty identifications and minus signs nonexisting objects (e.g., asterisms, stars taken for nebulae, and errors).

    The author thanks Leos Ondra for providing him with a copy of Bode's original catalog which made this work possible.

    References:


  • Short biography of Johann Elert Bode
  • More Deepsky Observing lists
  • History of the Discovery of the Deepsky Objects
  • Some other historical catalogs


    Hartmut Frommert
    Christine Kronberg
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    Last Modification: April 18, 2005